There’s always a risk when a musician plays an unreleased song in concert. What if it flops in front of their biggest fans? Rising pop star Rose Gray didn’t have that problem when she previewed her single “Club to Your Arms” at a sold-out show at La Poisson Rouge in New York City late last month. After the final note, the crowd erupted. The couple in front of me almost immediately started making out. “That song is so fucking good,” someone shouted when she finished. It’s safe to say her stans are on board.

Gray’s been on a steady rise since she released her debut album, Louder, Please, back in January 2025. She’s toured the world, opened for Kesha, and collaborated with Demi Lovato, Shygirl, and the Spice Girls’ Mel C. The English singer even begun to attract tabloid attention in her home country (British gossip press reported she married her longtime boyfriend, actor Harris Dickinson). But the success has been a long time coming. Gray, 29, has been pursuing a pop career since her teens, with several stints working in clubs and writing songs for other artists along the way. Caught backstage before her New York show, Gray was both still surprised her career has made it this far and eager to begin rolling out a new era.

Louder, Please has been out for about a year and a half now. What have you learned in that time?

I learned how to bring an album out by doing it the wrong way around. Since putting it out, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is what you’re meant to do. You’re meant to do shows.’ I was so naive. I didn’t understand anything. I knew the music side, but not touring and marketing and everything that goes with it.

But it’s worked out so far.

I’ve always been a very determined, positive person. But with my career, I started to accept that it maybe wasn’t going to be the way I thought it would be. I’ve always wanted to play arenas and tour the world, but I had been hit back so many times. But I thought, that’s okay because I still get to make music and write for other people.

It feels like we’re in a generational shift with pop music. In the past, you needed one big hit early in your career, but now you can more gradually build longevity. We’ve seen so many artists recently where they’re on their third, fourth, or fifth record, and that’s when they’ve really popped off.

It's really exciting. It feels like a lot of women in their late 20s and 30s are blossoming. I’m turning 30 at the end of this year, and I feel really happy that it's happening now.

Tell me how “Club to Your Arms” came about.

Since January of last year, it’s been a whirlwind. I’ve been traveling to places I never thought I’d see—we’re talking five suitcases for all the tour looks. I’d been doing DJ sets. I’m probably partying too much. I wrote “Club to Your Arms” about my return to London being so chaotic. I came home one night, lost my keys, and sat outside my house on my suitcases. I got in the studio a week later at the end of last year. It started as a joke on the mic, talking about my showgirl fatigue. I had the most pressure I’ve ever had on me, but I actually never felt better. It was instant, and formed very quickly. After the first demo, I was like, “Yeah, this is special.”

Would you consider this song the start of a new era?

It’s definitely a continuation of Louder, Please. It feels connected, so I'm channeling that. I’m finishing a new record, but it's moving in a different direction.

Is there anything you want to do differently this time around?

I love visuals, I love a music video. With “Club to Your Arms,” we shot a video on film all over London. It was a two-day shoot. It felt like a small film. I would have never been able to do that before. I’m also collaborating with people I grew up listening to, like Demi.

Have you gotten good advice from any of the artists you’ve worked with?

Kesha is very good at advice. She’s maternal and motherly and looked after me on tour. She actually just said, “If you ever think something doesn’t feel right or you want to question it, just ask me.”

Have you had any pinch-me moments since the album was released?

I still find doing a show thousands of miles away from home with, like, 800 people in front of you singing the words back ... I’m not getting bored of that. It still feels like, “Wow!”

Zendaya’s status as red carpet royalty didn’t just happen overnight. The former Disney star and her longtime Image Architect and stylist, Law Roach, steadily worked hard over the years to prove their fashion bona fides to the world. Nowhere is that more apparent than when looking back at Zendaya’s history at the Met Gala. It all led up to the 2024 event, when the actor hit the Met steps in a pair of vintage ball gowns that nearly shut down the red carpet.

Over the years, the actor has gone from a guest of designers to a moment-creating VIP capable of commanding all the attention on one of the world’s busiest red carpets. Here, a look back at all of Zendaya’s Met Gala looks, including her after-party 'fits, from 2015 until now.

2025: “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”

In 2025, Zendaya leaned into the evening’s dress code with a bridal white look from Louis Vuitton.

The outfit paid homage to the year’s coinciding exhibition, but also referenced Bianca Jagger’s famous 1971 wedding suit.

After the event, the actor ditched her all-white look for a red, floral Patrick Kelly dress to attend the after parties.

2024: “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”

After a lengthy five-year hiatus, Zendaya made her Met Gala comeback in 2024. As one of the night’s co-chairs, the actor nailed the “The Garden Of Time” dress code in a custom John Galliano Margiela look that referenced the designer’s time at Christian Dior.

Of course, no stone was left unturned as the actor finished off her gown with a Stephen Jones headpiece and dramatic eye makeup.

After most of the gala’s guests made their way up the steps, Zendaya had one last go at the carpet. She slipped into a piece of archival fashion in honor of the night’s theme, wearing a Galliano-era Givenchy gown that she styled with an archival Alexander McQueen headpiece.

The train! The drama!

She ended the night with a custom Loewe dress.

2019: “Camp: Notes on Fashion”

The theme of the 2019 Met Gala was “Camp,” and Zendaya and her stylist, Law Roach, decided to put on a show. Enlisting Tommy Hilfiger to design a light-up dress, the duo reenacted Cinderella right on the red carpet.

Naturally, Roach stepped into the role of Fairy Godfather.

Please note Zendaya’s pumpkin coach bag, which came courtesy of the undisputed American master of bedazzled evening minaudières, Judith Leiber.

Of course, they left a glass slipper behind, as if you had to ask.

The thing about the Met Gala is that after all those red carpet theatrics, you are expected to go inside and eat a dinner. So Zendaya changed into a flowy gown in a delicate shade of lilac—but kept her pumpkin bag close.

After parties can be serious business, and Zendaya hit the circuit that year in a black velvet suit. Note, however, her purple shoes, which she kept on after the main event.

2018: “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”

Zendaya showed up ready for battle in honor of the Catholicism-themed edition of the Met Gala. Her custom Versace gown was a nod to Saint Joan of Arc. Yes, she managed to get one of the most definitive Italian fashion houses to find inspiration in the Patron Saint of France. In some ways, Zendaya may be more powerful than the EU Parliament.

Once inside, Zendaya removed the chest piece and shoulders for a slightly more comfortable fit.

For Versace’s official after party, she paired a Versace skirt with a n:Philanthropy tee.

2017: “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between”

Not everyone is on theme every year, and this maximalist gown from Dolce & Gabbana wasn’t really in conversation with the avant-garde dress code. It was, however, breathtaking.

At the afters that year, Zendaya stuck to both Dolce and her floral theme. You could argue that the intentionally unfinished detailing on the shoulders and lapels was in line with Kawakubo’s sartorial themes of deconstruction.

2016: “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology”

Zendaya attended the 2016 edition as a guest of Michael Kors, and her look that night proved she had more in common with Liza Minnelli than the fact that both of their names include the letter “Z.” Her golden gown’s inspiration was straight out of Studio 54 and she sported a Minnelli-ish black bob.

At the after-party, she kept the gold going with a go-go-inspired minidress and boots courtesy of Michael Kors.

2015: “China: Through the Looking Glass”

For her very first Met Gala, Zendaya wore a sculptural minidress from Fausto Puglisi.

She switched into a black and brown skirt suit for the after parties that year.

Rihanna has earned a reputation as the de facto Queen of the Met Gala red carpet with a knack for nailing the year’s theme. Though it wasn’t always that way. First attending the event back in 2007, Rihanna was no doubt well-dressed, but it took a few more go-arounds on the famed museum steps for her to emerge as a master of Met Gala dressing.

Her past Met Gala looks vary from a tailored suit in 2009 to a revealing Stella McCartney white two-piece gown in 2014. On the 2015 red carpet, however, Rihanna broke through the noise, wearing a yellow Guo Pei gown with an insanely elaborate train and a matching headpiece that made headlines as one of the most memorable Met Gala looks of all time. In 2017, she stole the show again in Comme des Garçons and has since walked the steps in everything from Valentino to Balenciaga. Unfortunately, we don’t know if the mom of three will be attending the event this year. But at least we have the comfort of her past looks to hold us over while we wait to see if she makes an appearance in 2026. Here, a look back at all of Rihanna’s jaw-dropping Met Gala looks, from 2007 until now.

2007: Poiret: King of Fashion

At 2007’s Met Gala, “Poiret: King of Fashion,” Rihanna made her debut in a white Georges Chakra gown with silver embellishments and mesh gloves. She carried a red rose as an additional accessory.

2009: The Model as Muse

Rihanna chose a Dolce & Gabbana suit and bow tie paired with black stilettos for 2009’s “The Model as Muse” Met Gala.

2011: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Wearing a black lace Stella McCartney gown at the 2011 Met Gala, “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” Rihanna accessorized with a long side-braid and emerald earrings.

2012: Schiaparelli And Prada: Impossible Conversations

Rihanna wore a black Tom Ford gown with a crocodile texture to the 2012 ball. The theme was “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.” She paired the look with a chic updo, accentuating the fact that the side of her head was shaved at the time.

2014: Charles James: Beyond Fashion

Rihanna wore a white Stella McCartney two-piece for the 2014 edition, “Charles James: Beyond Fashion.” Clearly, she was ahead of the game when it came to wearing formal crop tops.

2015: China Through The Look Glass

Rihanna began to really earn her reputation as the queen of dressing on theme in 2015. The exhibition that year was entitled “China Through The Looking Glass,” and Rihanna wore a yellow gown by Chinese designer Guo Pei, who said that “only women who have the confidence of a queen could wear it.”

2017: Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art Of The In-Between

The “avant-garde” mandate of the 2017 red carpet for the “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art Of The In-Between” exhibition tripped up many, but Rihanna knew what to do. She was one of the few to actually wear Comme des Garçons, and arguably the one to pull it off best.

The flower-inspired look may have eaten others up, but Rihanna remained the prettiest blossom in the bunch.

2019: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination

The theme in 2018 was “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” so what did Rihanna do? She dressed as the Pope. She tapped the former Maison Margiela designer John Galliano to create the look, though it was actually based on one he had designed while he was at the helm of Dior.

Stephen Jones, who made her headpiece, recently reminisced on the moment for W: “I said, ‘How do you want to look?’ She replied, ‘Funny enough, nobody has asked me that. I want to look pretty.’ I said, ‘The hat is quite heavy with all the embroidery,’ and she said, ‘Have you seen the shoes? The hat is not the problem.’”

2021: In America: A Lexicon of Fashion

Ok, so apparently Rihanna isn’t always interested in nailing the theme. For the 2021 exhibition, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” she wore a look from Demna for Balenciaga. “I’m an immigrant and that’s my take on American fashion,” she said on the red carpet.

That year was also the first time Rihanna walked the red carpet with a romantic interest, A$AP Rocky.

2023: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty

No Met Gala red carpet officially ends without an appearance from Rihanna. In 2023, the star kept audiences waiting for all the right reasons. She slipped into an all-white Valentino confection modeled after the Chanel camellia flower and arrived fashionably late for the “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” event.

Then pregnant with her second child, Rihanna unbuttoned her flower coat to unveil a stunning white gown complete with the train of all trains.

2025: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style

Per usual, Rihanna showed up to the 2025 Met Gala very late. But she had a good reason—she announced that she’s pregnant.

The star wore a custom Marc Jacobs outfit that showcased her growing baby bump.

2026: Costume Art

Rihanna was a galaxy unto herself in a custom Martin Margiela Artisanal gown inspired by the medieval architecture of Flanders and its moody atmosphere. According the house, the draping reflects the painting of “Flemish primitives.”

Rihanna’s gown was crafted from fabric woven with recycled threads typically used for computer wiring. The bodice was embellished with 115,000 crystal beads, antique jewels, and chains. She topped the look in an Art Deco–inspired headpiece from Jennifer Behr. Meanwhile, A$AP Rocky wore a relaxed Chanel tuxedo look with a pink evening coat.

To pass Fashion 101 you have to know that Nicolas Ghesquière is the current artistic director of Louis Vuitton. To graduate with your Fashion Nerd bachelor's degree, you need to demonstrate an encyclopedic knowledge of Ghesquière’s previous work at Balenciaga from 1992 to 2012. To earn your doctorate in True Fashion Fierceness from the Chloë Sevigny School of Infinite Chicness, you have to write your thesis on Ghesquière’s semi-secretive stint as the designer of Italian label Callaghan.

Sevigny herself will be grading your papers, and last night, to celebrate Louis Vuitton’s cruise 2027 show in New York, she took to Instagram to prove why. She showed off a 26-year-old dress that is the ultimate IYKYK archive pull.

First, a little cheat sheet: After being hired to help design licenses, Ghesquière became the creative director of Balenciaga at 26, almost by accident when—according to fashion lore—the previous designer was fired for blasting music by the noisy electro band Add B to (X) a bit too loudly during a show and upsetting editors’ delicate eardrums. Ghesquière breathed new life into the then-sleepy Spanish house and quickly attained a cult following. At the time, fashion houses’ relationships to their creative directors were different, and Ghesquière decided to take a side gig designing for the Italian knitwear label Callaghan. According to the agreement, neither the brand nor the designer could publicly acknowledge the situation, but fashion fans found out anyway and the cult of Ghesquière carried over anyway.

He showed his third collection for Callaghan in New York City. It was the first time the designer would put on a show in America. It was also the last he’d show for Callaghan. The company, then known as Gucci Group, had purchased Balenciaga. Callaghan couldn’t renegotiate Ghesquière’s contract, and eventually went out of business. The rest, of course, is history.

It’s a history that Sevigny knows well. She was there for it all as one of Ghesquière’s first and fiercest celebrity friends. The same month Ghesquière showed his Callaghan collection in New York, she attended the VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards as the designer’s date.

So, naturally, to celebrate Ghesquière’s return to New York, Sevigny (presumably) went into her own closet and pulled out one of the standout dresses from his last Callaghan collection. Done in contrasting emerald green and navy blue stripes, the jersey dress remains on-trend twenty-six years after it hit the runway.

“#deepcuts #flex,” she captioned the photo.

Sevigny also wore several of Ghesquière’s Balenciaga designs during his tenure, and continues to be a fan of his work for Vuitton. To sit front row for the show, she opted for a look from Vuitton’s fall 2026 collection. Constructed in a mix of patterns, texture, and fabrics that exemplified Ghesquière’s aim to convey the universal language of fashion.

The fall show was held at the Louvre, a place that hold its own trove of historic treasures. Though, if you’re looking to get that PhD in Fashion Studies, it may not hold as many relevant treasures as Sevigny’s closet.

There’s a tension between preparation and execution in Tadashi Kawamata’s work. The Japanese-born artist can spend months or even years preparing to install one of his projects using models and sketches—but chance always ends up playing a part. The creation’s final form is left up to factors like the material he can source, the weather during their construction, the realities of nature, and even the reaction of neighbors. It makes sense, then, that Kawamata would collaborate with champagne brand Ruinart. The careful art of champagne making is passed down from generation to generation, and yet the characteristics that define each vintage are often left to the fate of that year’s weather and growing conditions.

In fact, as chance would have it, when Kawamata was selected to take part in Ruinart’s Conversations with Nature program, he was originally meant to contribute just one piece for permanent display at the Maison’s headquarters in Reims, France. He ended up making three. Together, they’re a succinct crash course in the artist’s work.

Eagle-eyed guests walking up to Ruinart’s headquarters first encounter “Treehub,” a bird house-like structure tucked into the trees. Strolling into the art-filled garden, they can’t miss “Observatory.” It’s a six-meter-high structure shaped something like an upturned bottle that demands attention. But once you climb up inside it, it turns your attention to the nature and the surrounding town. Finally, “Nest,” is affixed to the corner of Ruinart historic building. The original plan was to repurpose wood from Kawamata’s recent intervention at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo, but the exhibition proved so popular it was extended until the fall, forcing the artist to find new materials instead.

Below, he discusses his preparation for the piece, ephemerality, and the possibility of being replaced by AI.

You work is almost always an intervention into an existing human landscape, but in this case you’re affixing a permanent installation to Ruinart’s headquarters. How much preparation went into this?

My work is always site-specific. I worked with five or six assistants at the site and I stayed two weeks to build up from the foundation. It takes many professionals, like engineers, architects, also some technical specialists. We had to calculate how much wind might be coming. If I do something in a public space, I really have to be following this way.

I’m interested in the ephemerality of some of your work. A lot of artists, their ego does not allow them to make something that doesn’t last.

I’m not like that. I don’t know, it’s not my character. I don’t try to be perfect. I cannot control everything. I always work on the site. It’s always quite a different condition. It’s not always like today, a sunny day. Sometimes it’s rainy and wet and we have an accident. Every time is a different situation.

You’ve worked all over the world. Do you find differences in the way that your art is approached in different cultures?

It’s totally different. As I told you, every time the site is very important for me. With some countries and cities, the reaction is quite different. It’s sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sometimes I stop the work, because it’s too disturbing to the neighborhood. One neighborhood was collecting signatures to stop the construction. They said it’s “crazy scaffolding.” I said, that’s my work, you know?

One thing that strikes me about your work is just how human it is. You’re open to mistakes, and the structures are the result of human labor. I’m wondering if AI is something you ever think about?

Recently I went to a competition where they got architects and artists together. In this city, one of the bridges doesn’t work, so they want to make something different. I was planning to make a model and everything, but the architect said, “We don’t need that. We can just put 20 years of your work into a computer,” and the AI made the presentation. I was wondering what’s going to come. Of course the presentation is not really the work, but visually it’s quite interesting. I just said, “Okay, we can make this.” Then we go on to win. I think once I stop or maybe I die, maybe AI could continue.

Growing up in Tampa, Florida, with David Bowie posters on her wall, Dianne Brill sensed she didn’t quite fit in. Around 1980, she discovered a store with a basement full of never-worn clothing from the 1940s. She bought it all, then lugged the “body bags’ ” worth of vintage to New York City to sell at Patricia Field’s Lower East Side boutique and at Trash & Vaudeville. “I sat there with empty bags and a handful of cash, and I thought, I guess I’ll move here,” says Brill. “Within six months, I started going to Studio 54, Mudd Club, and then finally Danceteria.” A regular on the 1980s downtown club scene, Brill became a muse to Andy Warhol, who declared her the “Queen of the Night.” Her superpower, as Warhol once noted, was that she “makes nobodies feel like somebodies with the big hellos she gives to everybody.” Brill “wasn’t into drugs, and I didn’t get into a downtrodden thing. I got into people who were nice,” she explains. Her brains helped turn her It girl persona into businesses—a menswear label, a cosmetics line, and TV gigs. After decamping to Europe, where she raised her three children, Brill returned to New York City permanently in 2022. While she isn’t keen on the version of New York “where people stand in line forever just to get something they saw on Instagram that day,” she still finds the city full of possibilities. “You can always reinvent yourself.”

Omnipresent on New York’s downtown scene throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, Brill is often credited for establishing the “famous for being famous” playbook long before Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian. Her nightlife adventures were chronicled in gossip columns and magazines. She once had a New York Times reporter follow her around to five parties in the span of a few hours—a normal weeknight for her. Promoters would fly her all over the world, from London to Vienna to Milan, to host events. “It sounds like jet-setting, but it’s not like when your dad owns the jet. It was accessible and cool,” says Brill. “Also, rents were $300, so we could all create, travel, make, do, and take risks every day.”

“It’s wonderful to be raised in a place that’s beautiful,” says Brill of Tampa, where she and her three brothers grew up. “Even being in a Publix parking lot, it would be sunny and then the sky would be purple, orange, and red.” Her mother, who was born in Britain and raised in Havana, was a journalist who kept a collection of newspapers and Interview magazines. Her father, a snazzy dresser, informed Brill’s love of fashion. Her Florida upbringing prepared her for New York nightlife in unexpected ways. “There’s a little Florida scam in you. You can handle the shit that comes your way. You don’t freeze like a deer in the headlights. You get going.”

By her teenage years, she was ready to leave the Sunshine State. “I could see that I didn’t fit in,” she says. “If you get laughed at for wearing a black turtleneck, a knee-length fitted skirt, and cha-cha heels, and you know you look cool, you realize you’re the right girl in the wrong place.”

Outlaw parties were held in illegal locations, like abandoned subway stations; invitations spread through answering machine messages and word of mouth. These events “could last for five minutes and the police would shut them down, or it could be hours.” Brill often went out with Warhol. “Andy was a matchmaker. He was always trying to get me to date Jean-Michel,” says Brill. “Andy was a very loyal friend, and, contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t this terror. He was very kind to me.”

Fran Lebowitz “is a New York Yoda. Everything that comes out of her mouth, even when she’s speaking casually, is just noteworthy and brilliant,” says Brill. “She’s not really in nightlife anymore. I usually run into her at some random place during the day, like a grocery store.”

“Keith [Haring] and I were in the same building—611 Broadway. I had my atelier there, on the sixth floor; Details magazine was below me, and Keith was above me. It was like Andy Warhol’s Factory, except we all had businesses,” says Brill. “I loved Keith not the way adults love each other—I loved him as if we were both kids.”

Steve Rubell, the co-owner of Studio 54, “first introduced me to Dolly Parton at the Palladium,” explains Brill. “In the ’80s, to be larger than life, you literally had to be larger than life, and we both were. Here, we had both slimmed down, but it was still body-ody-ody. She is not fake. With all that stuff on the outside, she is the most authentic, present person you’ll ever meet.”

“She’s authentic,” says Brill of Grace Jones. “The way she looks and the way she presents herself is very similar to Andy [Warhol]. Grace is still around and touring, and she’s not five hours late like she was before. She’s an hour late.” Last summer, Page Six reported that the two had partied together at the Roof at Public Hotel, on the Lower East Side, well into the night.

In 1989, “I was called ‘the Shape of the Decade,’ ” says Brill. “I was basically the same size as all the other girls, but I had boobs and a butt and a very small waist.” Adel Rootstein, who was considered the world’s premiere mannequin maker, made models in Brill’s likeness. “It was a big deal. The last time they had done that was with Twiggy in the ’60s. I toured with these mannequins around the world. I did every television show you can imagine.”

To a certain set, Nell Campbell may be best known as the top-hatted Columbia in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but to New York’s cultural elite, she was the co-proprietor of Nell’s, the 14th Street nightclub that regularly mixed club kids, celebrities, and intellectuals. “I sat down at a table one night with Norman Mailer, Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Cher, Liberace, and Nell. These kinds of things would happen all the time,” says Brill. “You would never go out casually. You would be dressed thinking tonight’s going to be the best night of your life.”

In the early ’80s, Brill married Danceteria co-owner Rudolf Piper, and together they hatched a plan to get Thierry Mugler’s attention at a dinner in New York. “We did a slow dance, and I made sure to be in front of him so he would see me. I knew that Mugler [above left] was a dancer—I’m not, but I’m sexy when I’m dancing,” says Brill. “That night, his right hand, Alix Malka, came to me and said, ‘We would love to talk to you about being in the next show.’ I thought I would just lose my mind. All those nights you’re sitting in your room in Tampa feeling like no one gets you, then you come to your place, and not only do you belong, but you’re so welcomed—all your little-kid dreams can come true.” Brill once walked a Mugler show just months after giving birth to her first child, Keenan (above right). “Naomi, Linda, and Cindy were kissing Keenan backstage. He’s a hunky six-foot-two charming man now.”

“Hamish [Bowles] has grown up to be such a legend, but honestly, he was a legend from the moment he arrived in New York,” says Brill. “I ran into him a couple years ago, and it was like running into the same guy.” For this party, Brill chose a custom Mugler bustier and trenchcoat she had originally worn on the runway in Tokyo. “I felt like the Queen of Everything.”

Brill’s first Mugler show was his spring 1988 “African Summer” collection, for which she walked the runway as the bride. “He loved my look—he loved my body very much. He celebrated it like a dream. But he said, ‘There’s something I would love to improve…you need an inch in your leg,’ ” says Brill. “He had custom stilettos made for me that discreetly added to my height. It was just an inch more that made me, in his perception, the perfect woman.”

Mugler’s 1990s couture shows were legendary. They included supermodels, actors, club kids, porn stars, and musical performances by the likes of James Brown, who took to the runway at the 1995 fall show (above). Brill was one of Mugler’s favorite runway models. The spring 1992 show brought her to tears. “I walked off the stage, and there were Naomi, Cindy, Christy—all the girls. Everyone took a beat and applauded for me,” she recalls. “I was crying. They had to touch me up before the next passage.”

Early on, Brill caught the attention of Jean Paul Gaultier (right) and was cast in his spring 1989 show. “Mugler and Gaultier, they’re both tall, both French, both super fucking hunks. Gorgeous men. Outrageously talented, free minds, open to everything, hungry for everything: giving, taking, creating.”

In 1989, Brill attended Bartsch’s Love Ball with Patricia Field (left) and Debbie Harry (center). The HIV/AIDS fundraiser brought downtown’s cool kids into contact with Harlem’s ballroom and voguing scenes for the first time. The trio was brought in to help judge a portion of the competition. “Madonna came and saw, and then she did her song ‘Vogue.’ ”

In the late ’90s, Brill left New York for Europe with her second husband, Peter Völkle. She was busy raising her children—son Keenan and daughters Celan and Eden—and starting her self-titled cosmetics brand, but New York was always on her mind. She returned often, including for a 2010 birthday party, pictured above, hosted by Susanne Bartsch (center) and attended by Amanda Lepore (right). “I’m an Aries. I love a birthday!”

Brill says you shouldn’t fan out around celebrities. “With your friends who are known, you don’t want to do too much of that because they get freaked out and start to feel paranoid.” Still, she couldn’t help herself when it came to Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall. “I remember telling her that she was a new Marilyn. The character she created will last way past her years. I wanted her to know.” Above: Brill hung out with Cattrall (in gold) on a night out on the Upper East Side in late 2025, along with actor Maya Hawke (front) and Swiping America star Reagan Baker (in red).

Brill knows RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage and the show’s executive producers Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey from the ’80s club scene. “It’s a wonderful experience to still have friends you’ve known from your roots. These guys are big cultural icons, but they’re still the same, just more sophisticated.” She was a natural choice to judge Drag Race’s 2023 German spin-off.

“I was living in Europe for a long time. I had another life with a wonderful man, and I had three incredible kids, who are now adults and incredibly cool. But after some years, I realized I had to leave the relationship and come back to the city,” says Brill. In 2022, she finally returned to New York. “At the moment, I’m working on a show called Mz. Brill’s 10. I found 10 really specific people who, in my heart, are the artists I’ve been looking for.” She’s pictured with her friend Michael Zayas (center) and the DJ duo the Muses at her 66th birthday party, at the Soho Grand Hotel.

Since returning to New York City, Brill has made it her mission to surround herself with fellow creative souls, including the Muses (right). Of course, she’s still out and about on the party scene. “I’m pro–New York. Even walking home from a party, you’re just in your thoughts and it’s nice. People are coming and going, and you go, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I live in this beautiful city.’ You feel a part of it, this kind of wonderful belonging.”

Margot Robbie was a drama-club kid during her teenage years, as one would expect of someone who is now an Oscar-nominated actress and theater producer. Yet today in London, Robbie was feeling a little bit more like a band geek—at least, sartorially speaking. Attending the West End transfer premiere of the play 1536, Robbie suited up in McQueen’s edgy take on a marching band–esque jacket. A pair of ultra-low-rise “bumsters” added even more drama.

While they’re technically better referred to as Napoleon jackets or military jackets (we just prefer the less violent interpretation), marching band jackets have seen a sudden return to fashion this year. They had originally been repurposed as a signifier of subversive cool back in the ’80s when Britain’s New Romantics music scene appropriated the look (see: Adam Ant), and then returned to the “In” list in the ’00s when they popped up on the influential runways of Hedi Slimane–era Dior Homme and Christophe Decarnin–era Balmain. The garment reappeared en masse on several spring 2026 runways, although Robbie’s McQueen version may be the sexiest iteration.

Robbie wore a black T-shirt underneath, but the jacket itself is cropped mid torso—meant to be worn wide open. While the piece exposes the midriff, elongated sleeves kept Robbie’s knuckles modestly covered. It’s decidedly on trend, but the outfit also harkens back to Alexander McQueen history. The house founder showed a cropped military jacket in his 2003 “Irere” collection. The low-rise “bumster” pants that Margot wore are, of course, one of the definitive McQueen codes. They’re called “bumster” because they’re cut so low, they risk showing off a bit of bum. Robbie, however, managed to avoid that risk.

Written by Ava Pickett, 1536 explores the impact of Anne Boleyn’s execution on three working class women in Tudor England. The play picked up numerous awards and rave reviews. Robbie and her Lucky Chap Productions company came aboard as producers as the show moves to the West End.

So, while the event may have been more drama club, we guess it’s appropriate that Robbie was on the sidelines helping to hype the production in her marching band jacket.